This post is sponsored by Horizon Organic. All opinions are my own. Have no fear. I’m not selling out to the big man, only working alongside a company I already use and love. If you’re down with Horizon Organic Milk as much as I am, here’s a $1 off coupon. Holla!
Sometimes when I say things like “holla” or “holla back youngin, woo woo!”, my husband reminds me I’m a 70 year old trapped in a 20-something year old body. The Martha Stewart Show was my favorite show in college. He may be on to something.
So my lingo is out of date. But probably not nearly as out of date as the baked donut pan that was trending a good two years ago. I may be late to the game, very late. But I stand proud, waving my donut around, exclaiming, “Holla back youngin! The donut recipe is finally perfected.”
My husband agrees with the assessment minus the holla part.
I retired the donut pan to the back of the cabinet after trying several different recipes, all a little too lackluster. Some tasted like muffins baked in a donut pan. Others tasted like cardboard disguised as a donut. But nothing tasted quite like a donut. I’ve never been a huge donut fan, so the loss for me was minimal. However, my donut-loving husband had high, high hopes. The loss was grave.
When I asked him what he’d like me to make for his birthday this year, you can guess what he said. Donuts. With little gusto, I dug out the donut pan that thankfully made it in the move last year and tore through all my loose leaf notes scattered around the house with recipes written on them. I have a knack for leaving out recipe titles. Fingers crossed, I found something that resembled my latest lackluster 2 year old donut recipe. I starred at it long and hard, hoping the recipe would correct itself. Since my last attempt was borderline dense cardboard, I added more liquid and flavor and hoped for the best.
What came out of the pan was a donut I had been dreaming of all these years. A donut for the donut and non-donut lover alike that still had the essence of a (cake) donut.
He was away at a tennis tournament the morning the experiment went down. I sent him this to let him know it was safe to come home. Thankfully I didn’t have to spell SOS this time.
You can fault me for being behind the times. But these donuts are a very good excuse to dig out your two year old pan from the back of the cabinet.
Pour a glass of milk. And partake in one or two. The non-fried, feel-good flavor will leave you saying one thing. “Holla back youngin!”
In a small bowl, mix together milk and vinegar. Allow to sit for aout 5 minutes to curdle. Melt butter in a small bowl and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, whisk together flours, baking powder, sea salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Set aside.
Into the cooled butter, whisk in sugar, honey, egg, and vanilla bean seeds until evenly combined. Add in curdled milk. Side note, dip honey measuring utensil in the melted butter first for easy honey removal.
Whisk together wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Over-mixing will create a dense donut.
Spray donut pan. Add batter to a piping bag and pipe evenly into the pan.
Bake for 7 minutes. Allow to cool 1 minute before turning pan over to remove donuts onto a cooling rack.
Meanwhile, make glaze. In a flat-bottomed bowl, whisk together half and half and vanilla bean seeds until evenly combined. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add 1 teaspoon more of half and half at a time. If dough is too thin, add 1 tablespoon more of powdered sugar at a time.
Once donuts have cooled completely, about 15-20 minutes, dunk in glaze rocking the donut around the bowl to evenly coat. Place on cooling rack and allow to dry, about 20 minutes. Serve. Best served same day. If storing leftovers, remove from cooling rack and store uncovered.
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My mom said homemade donuts require a lot of work but they were a breeze to make. I think this is less work than my mom might think and the result is truly crisp and a very good donut indeed.
I have been working on mastering several basic recipes for yeasted, fluffy donuts and I find this recipe extremely helpful. A few weeks later, I will experiment with toppings, fillings and glazings.
Will it taste good if served with blueberry ginger jam for spreading or dipping?
My kiddos are allergic to dairy and eggs, among other things (I know, it is tragic!). Do you think apple sauce could replace the egg and use soy milk for the glaze?
Oh man! That’s tricky. I haven’t dabbled enough to know good replacements. I know some of my baking friends swear by flax “eggs” as an egg replacement. Have you checked out Oh Ladycakes yet? She’s a vegan baker and has posted a couple donut recipes recently. She might be a good place to start! Let me know if you end up making replacements with this recipe and how it turns out!
These donuts are flawless. I’ve just realized that i love this kind of simple donuts not the one with chocolate and colorful topping. Vanilla is perfect!
If you don’t mind asking why use Vinegar? Doesn’t Vinegar give you sour taste? I though maybe it softens the dough…..?! I tried this from someone who adopted your recipe and I still loved it. Except the donut or waffle came out as little harder than I thought. (Maybe I should add more butter to soften?) Overall, I loved every bit of that donuts… 🙂 Great Recipe. Thank you!!!
ps: I tried like 5 different recipes and yours were the best one that all my family liked! 🙂
Hey Caroline! Originally when I was testing, I was using buttermilk but got a ton of different results. I eventually switched to a buttermilk substitute= milk + vinegar and loved the results every time. Lately I’ve been using apple cider vinegar. I’ve never noticed a bitter or sour taste. There’s only just enough to curdle the milk. I wish I knew what was technically going on in the background. I tested without it too but kept coming back to a bit of vinegar. If they are coming out a bit harder than expected, it may be that you need to cook them a minute less. I’ve found that our current oven runs a bit hotter so I pull them out just before 7 minutes. I’ve also started to do a thin glaze over the whole donut and then adding a thicker glaze to the top. It really helps to lock in the moisture and they’re good on day 2 as well. Hopefully this long winded comment helps! Let me know if other questions come up!
Thank you Melissa. Milk+vinegar is like butter milk.. That explains a lot to me already. Thank you so much again. I just started to bake things, and your recipes are so easy to follow and probably the best. Now, I will try with vinegar and see what happens under my watch. 🙂
I also am late to the game — really, in finding this recipe and your fantastic techniques. I’m tired of my baked doughnuts tasting like muffins! I’m in the midst of planning an apple cider doughnut recipe, though, and wondering if you’ve tried the same with your base recipe? If so, any tips on what to switch out for, say, reduced cider? Thanks!
Sarah, you read my mind! I’m working on an apple cider baked donut now (with this recipe as the base). Hoping to post this week or next. As much as I don’t want to take the time to reduce, I think I’m gonna have to.
Ack I actually didn’t see this until now, and have experimented myself! I did go the reduced cider route, and am very glad I did — it was actually incredibly easy. Your new recipe looks amazing. Putting mine up tomorrow, but I will definitely have to compare 🙂
Half and Half is sold in US grocery stores. It’s half cream and half milk. Hope that helps! And thanks for the love! Let me know if any other questions pop up.
Speaking of late to the game, here I am a year after this post. I followed the carrot cake donut post to this one. I want to make these for Mother’s Day but I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn. Can I make the batter the night before and store it in the piping bag? Then all I have to do in the morning is bake and glaze. Will that work?
Yes, yes! I need to update this in the recipe. You can actually bake the donuts the night before and lightly cover, icing them in the morning. I would remove them from the drying rack. I’ve found that storing them over night on the rack dries them out too much. However, storing in an airtight container makes them too moist.
I loved these but my family of 4 HATED them. They said they didn’t taste like Krispy Kreme donuts. Oh well, I guess you can’t replace the real thing with healthier ones 😉
Sorry your family didn’t like them! These are definitely different than fried Krispy Kreme donuts. I just had a little one, so we’ll see how she takes to my baked donuts (when she can eat real food). I have no doubt her Daddy will give her the real deal 🙂
Would you mind telling me the weight of the flour (1/2 c. white whole wheat flour & 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour) in oz./gr.? You think is it possible use just all-purpose flour? Your donut pan is for regular donuts no mini donuts, right?
Hey Heidi! Sorry for the delayed response. I haven’t really dabbled in converting cups to oz/gr so I don’t want to give you misinformation. But here’s a helpful link from King Arthur Flour. I also haven’t made the donuts with just all-purpose flour, but it should work just fine. You may need an extra tablespoon of flour to get the texture right. And finally, the recipe is written for a regular donut pan. I still need to get my hands on a mini pan. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Is it possible to substitute the vanilla bean for vanilla extract and how much should I use? Also, can I use regular whole wheat flour and all purpose flour instead? That is what I have on hand right now.
Hey Suzie! You can definitely sub in extract for the bean. I’d use 1 tsp. of extract in the batter. And instead of doing equal parts wheat flour to all purpose, I would do a bit more all-purpose as the regular whole wheat can be a bit more dense a yield a stronger, more bitter flavor. Maybe 2/3 cup regular and 1/3 cup wheat. Hope this helps!
I tried this recipe and found that the amount of sugar is perfect for us. It turned out very tasty (I added a tbsp of cinammon). As I don’t have a donut pan I used a freezer bag to form rings of dough on a baking sheet (I cut the tip to press the dough through). Unfortunately the dough spread and lost the form and I got big flat cookies 🙂 but they are delicious 🙂 🙂 Thank you for sharing!!
I am wanting to use a homemade vanilla bean paste. It is basically bourbon vanilla beans, agave, vanilla extract. it has the consistency of honey. Could I use this in place of the honey in the batter and leave out the vanilla bean??? thank you!
My guess is your could definitely substitute, however, I’ve never worked with vanilla bean paste before, so it’s juts a guess. You may want to do one tablespoon of honey and one tablespoon paste to make sure it’s not too vanilla-y. Hope you like them!
OH…MY…GOD. I made these last night (my first time breaking in my donut pan) and they were faaaaaaaabulous! I happened to have everything on hand to make them (dangerous!!) and they were way easier than I expected donuts to be. Thank you so much for this recipe – it’s divine!!
Ohhhhh the doughnut pan. 🙂 These look absolutely perfect! You can tell from the photos that they have a cake-like doughnut texture and not muffiny. Love the simple glaze as well, and vanilla bean is always my favorite. Beautiful!
Such pretty pictures! I always feel so happy here. I can’t wait to try these! I like my banana ones, but I’ve been wanting a ‘plain’ doughnut recipe, and these look perfect. xo
It’s settled, I need to go order a donut pan now! Cause man, I need one of these donuts!! They are beautiful and I love that glaze!! Plus, vanilla bean anything is always delicious!
Oh lordy. Should I invest in a donut pan? I think yes. I mean, it really would be a selfless purchase for Shaun and breakfast guests, right? Mhmm… When I saw video in the title I got SO EXCITED thinking I was going to get to see YOUR pretty preggo face… get on that! 😉
I’d like to try these, but I haven’t bought a pan either. One more single use item to store, but your pic makes it worth it. I like your funny sayings.
You may have just single handedly revived the donut pan industry with this post. Holla! I don’t even own one but will be adding one to my shopping list today! You go with your bad self!
I’ve had a donut pan in my wish list for a while now, and this post just might send me over the edge! I could really go for a vanilla bean donut right now. P.s. I miss you, friend! Skype date soon?
Yum! I sadly STILL don’t own one of those handy little pans. I tried making donuts once and failed miserably. They were so hard and dense and not at all appetizing. I might just have to pick up one of those pans and try your recipe!
I was incredibly late on the baked donut bandwagon as well – in fact I only just bought a donut pan so you are miles ahead of me! And yes, so many recipes out there seem to produce really cakey donuts – if I wanted cake I might as well spare myself the hassle of using a pastry bag and just bake a regular shaped cake, no? These look great though – and I like the little bit of nutmeg in the batter. Love the little ‘xo’ you sent your husband as well, so cute!
One question on the recipe, is the vinegar and milk mix meant as a substitute for buttermilk?
Thanks! Interesting to hear – buttermilk is hard to track down in Italy as it is and even when I do I never use it all. I have typically done milk and lemon juice as a substitute (e.g. for pancakes) – will give the vinegar a try and see how that pans out.
Lovely post, as always. This post has inspired me to dig out my donut pan from the cabinet. Last time I dug it out, I made pumpkin maple baked donuts. Experimentation in the kitchen can lead to such wonderful creations, such as these vanilla bean baked donuts.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
My mom said homemade donuts require a lot of work but they were a breeze to make. I think this is less work than my mom might think and the result is truly crisp and a very good donut indeed.
I have been working on mastering several basic recipes for yeasted, fluffy donuts and I find this recipe extremely helpful. A few weeks later, I will experiment with toppings, fillings and glazings.
Will it taste good if served with blueberry ginger jam for spreading or dipping?
My kiddos are allergic to dairy and eggs, among other things (I know, it is tragic!). Do you think apple sauce could replace the egg and use soy milk for the glaze?
Oh man! That’s tricky. I haven’t dabbled enough to know good replacements. I know some of my baking friends swear by flax “eggs” as an egg replacement. Have you checked out Oh Ladycakes yet? She’s a vegan baker and has posted a couple donut recipes recently. She might be a good place to start! Let me know if you end up making replacements with this recipe and how it turns out!
These donuts are flawless. I’ve just realized that i love this kind of simple donuts not the one with chocolate and colorful topping. Vanilla is perfect!
Hello Melissa,
If you don’t mind asking why use Vinegar?
Doesn’t Vinegar give you sour taste? I though maybe it softens the dough…..?!
I tried this from someone who adopted your recipe and I still loved it. Except the donut or waffle came out as little harder than I thought. (Maybe I should add more butter to soften?)
Overall, I loved every bit of that donuts… 🙂 Great Recipe.
Thank you!!!
ps: I tried like 5 different recipes and yours were the best one that all my family liked! 🙂
Hey Caroline! Originally when I was testing, I was using buttermilk but got a ton of different results. I eventually switched to a buttermilk substitute= milk + vinegar and loved the results every time. Lately I’ve been using apple cider vinegar. I’ve never noticed a bitter or sour taste. There’s only just enough to curdle the milk. I wish I knew what was technically going on in the background. I tested without it too but kept coming back to a bit of vinegar. If they are coming out a bit harder than expected, it may be that you need to cook them a minute less. I’ve found that our current oven runs a bit hotter so I pull them out just before 7 minutes. I’ve also started to do a thin glaze over the whole donut and then adding a thicker glaze to the top. It really helps to lock in the moisture and they’re good on day 2 as well. Hopefully this long winded comment helps! Let me know if other questions come up!
Thank you Melissa.
Milk+vinegar is like butter milk.. That explains a lot to me already. Thank you so much again.
I just started to bake things, and your recipes are so easy to follow and probably the best.
Now, I will try with vinegar and see what happens under my watch. 🙂
I also am late to the game — really, in finding this recipe and your fantastic techniques. I’m tired of my baked doughnuts tasting like muffins! I’m in the midst of planning an apple cider doughnut recipe, though, and wondering if you’ve tried the same with your base recipe? If so, any tips on what to switch out for, say, reduced cider? Thanks!
Sarah, you read my mind! I’m working on an apple cider baked donut now (with this recipe as the base). Hoping to post this week or next. As much as I don’t want to take the time to reduce, I think I’m gonna have to.
Ack I actually didn’t see this until now, and have experimented myself! I did go the reduced cider route, and am very glad I did — it was actually incredibly easy. Your new recipe looks amazing. Putting mine up tomorrow, but I will definitely have to compare 🙂
If you’re interested: http://imaginariyum.com/baked-apple-cider-doughnuts/
Really can’t wait to try your recipe, too!
what is half and half? thanks for answer 🙂 And your recipes are amazing.
Half and Half is sold in US grocery stores. It’s half cream and half milk. Hope that helps! And thanks for the love! Let me know if any other questions pop up.
These look amazing! And I imagine much lighter than regular donuts, since they’re not fried? I will add this to my to-do list!
Speaking of late to the game, here I am a year after this post. I followed the carrot cake donut post to this one. I want to make these for Mother’s Day but I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn. Can I make the batter the night before and store it in the piping bag? Then all I have to do in the morning is bake and glaze. Will that work?
Yes, yes! I need to update this in the recipe. You can actually bake the donuts the night before and lightly cover, icing them in the morning. I would remove them from the drying rack. I’ve found that storing them over night on the rack dries them out too much. However, storing in an airtight container makes them too moist.
I loved these but my family of 4 HATED them. They said they didn’t taste like Krispy Kreme donuts. Oh well, I guess you can’t replace the real thing with healthier ones 😉
Sorry your family didn’t like them! These are definitely different than fried Krispy Kreme donuts. I just had a little one, so we’ll see how she takes to my baked donuts (when she can eat real food). I have no doubt her Daddy will give her the real deal 🙂
Hi Melissa,
Would you mind telling me the weight of the flour (1/2 c. white whole wheat flour & 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour) in oz./gr.?
You think is it possible use just all-purpose flour?
Your donut pan is for regular donuts no mini donuts, right?
Thanks for sharing.
Heidi
Hey Heidi! Sorry for the delayed response. I haven’t really dabbled in converting cups to oz/gr so I don’t want to give you misinformation. But here’s a helpful link from King Arthur Flour. I also haven’t made the donuts with just all-purpose flour, but it should work just fine. You may need an extra tablespoon of flour to get the texture right. And finally, the recipe is written for a regular donut pan. I still need to get my hands on a mini pan. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Is it possible to substitute the vanilla bean for vanilla extract and how much should I use? Also, can I use regular whole wheat flour and all purpose flour instead? That is what I have on hand right now.
Hey Suzie! You can definitely sub in extract for the bean. I’d use 1 tsp. of extract in the batter. And instead of doing equal parts wheat flour to all purpose, I would do a bit more all-purpose as the regular whole wheat can be a bit more dense a yield a stronger, more bitter flavor. Maybe 2/3 cup regular and 1/3 cup wheat. Hope this helps!
I have been asked to make. Big donut that is not cake. Will this recipe work for the large donut?
I’ve never tried it, so I can’t say for sure. But as long as you have a large donut pan, I don’t see why not.
This looks so good and my family loves donuts. I don’t have a donut pan but, I have a cake ball pan. I see donut holes in our near future.
I tried this recipe and found that the amount of sugar is perfect for us. It turned out very tasty (I added a tbsp of cinammon).
As I don’t have a donut pan I used a freezer bag to form rings of dough on a baking sheet (I cut the tip to press the dough through). Unfortunately the dough spread and lost the form and I got big flat cookies 🙂 but they are delicious 🙂 🙂
Thank you for sharing!!
I am wanting to use a homemade vanilla bean paste. It is basically bourbon vanilla beans, agave, vanilla extract. it has the consistency of honey. Could I use this in place of the honey in the batter and leave out the vanilla bean???
thank you!
My guess is your could definitely substitute, however, I’ve never worked with vanilla bean paste before, so it’s juts a guess. You may want to do one tablespoon of honey and one tablespoon paste to make sure it’s not too vanilla-y. Hope you like them!
OH…MY…GOD. I made these last night (my first time breaking in my donut pan) and they were faaaaaaaabulous! I happened to have everything on hand to make them (dangerous!!) and they were way easier than I expected donuts to be. Thank you so much for this recipe – it’s divine!!
Love these babies! Tell your hub happy bday and to have a geriatric good time. 🙂
these look delicious, can’t wait to make them. you are one of my all time favorite bloggers, keep up the great work.
Ah, the beloved donut pan. I’ve been trying to get more use out of mine too, and these donuts look like a lovely way to do just that!
Ohhhhh the doughnut pan. 🙂 These look absolutely perfect! You can tell from the photos that they have a cake-like doughnut texture and not muffiny. Love the simple glaze as well, and vanilla bean is always my favorite. Beautiful!
Such pretty pictures! I always feel so happy here.
I can’t wait to try these! I like my banana ones, but I’ve been wanting a ‘plain’ doughnut recipe, and these look perfect. xo
i love the specks of vanilla bean in the frosting, they’re such understated and beautiful little things 🙂
It’s settled, I need to go order a donut pan now! Cause man, I need one of these donuts!! They are beautiful and I love that glaze!! Plus, vanilla bean anything is always delicious!
Oh lordy. Should I invest in a donut pan? I think yes. I mean, it really would be a selfless purchase for Shaun and breakfast guests, right? Mhmm… When I saw video in the title I got SO EXCITED thinking I was going to get to see YOUR pretty preggo face… get on that! 😉
I’d like to try these, but I haven’t bought a pan either. One more single use item to store, but your pic makes it worth it. I like your funny sayings.
I love me some baked donuts – I think we have the same donut pan! Must try this recipe asap. xo
You may have just single handedly revived the donut pan industry with this post. Holla! I don’t even own one but will be adding one to my shopping list today! You go with your bad self!
I’ve had a donut pan in my wish list for a while now, and this post just might send me over the edge! I could really go for a vanilla bean donut right now. P.s. I miss you, friend! Skype date soon?
I was just thinking we need to chat soon! I was about to send you an email. Been missing you pretty lady!
Don’t feel bad, it may have been more popular a couple of years ago, but donuts aren’t going anywhere! These look fantastic!
You’re too cute. I can just imagine you yelling holla! These look divine. I just may have to dig my donut pan out and give these a whirl!
Yum! I sadly STILL don’t own one of those handy little pans. I tried making donuts once and failed miserably. They were so hard and dense and not at all appetizing. I might just have to pick up one of those pans and try your recipe!
Homemade donuts are soooo good! Happy you found a recipe that rocked! Yum!
Gorgeous donuts! I have yet to take the plunge and buy a donut pan, but this recipe now has me convinced I need one asap.
I was incredibly late on the baked donut bandwagon as well – in fact I only just bought a donut pan so you are miles ahead of me! And yes, so many recipes out there seem to produce really cakey donuts – if I wanted cake I might as well spare myself the hassle of using a pastry bag and just bake a regular shaped cake, no? These look great though – and I like the little bit of nutmeg in the batter. Love the little ‘xo’ you sent your husband as well, so cute!
One question on the recipe, is the vinegar and milk mix meant as a substitute for buttermilk?
I’m glad I’m not alone! Technically, it’s a substitute for buttermilk. But after a couple tries, I liked it a lot better than the buttermilk.
Thanks! Interesting to hear – buttermilk is hard to track down in Italy as it is and even when I do I never use it all. I have typically done milk and lemon juice as a substitute (e.g. for pancakes) – will give the vinegar a try and see how that pans out.
Lovely post, as always. This post has inspired me to dig out my donut pan from the cabinet. Last time I dug it out, I made pumpkin maple baked donuts. Experimentation in the kitchen can lead to such wonderful creations, such as these vanilla bean baked donuts.